TIPS FOR IMPROVERS
Points of interest from the May 2015 duplicates
1 Two Key Cards and a Void
Board 19 Tuesday 19 May – Vulnerability East West – Dealer South
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None
A10x
10xxxxx
AQ10x
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KJxx
Qxxx
Jx
xxx
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A98xx
J9xx
x
xxx
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Q108x
Kx
AKQ9
KJ9
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North
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East
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South
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West
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3 Spades
5NT
Pass
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Pass
Pass
Pass
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1 Diamond
4NT
7 Diamonds
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Pass
Pass
Pass
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While those playing five card majors will obviously open 1 Diamond it is also often a good idea when holding 18-19 balanced and playing four card majors to open 1 Diamond when holding four Diamonds and a four card major and then jump to 2NT if partner bids the major in which you do not hold four cards. The above hand is a good example of why this is so.
Over 1 Diamond North should make a splinter bid of 3 Spades showing very good Diamond support (almost certainly five card support) and a singleton or void in Spades.
South’s first reaction might be to bid 3NT over the splinter as Q108x is a respectable holding opposite a singleton to play in notrumps. However as South has 16 working points outside Spades and it is highly probable that North has two keycards in view of his splinter bid South should immediately wheel out Roman Key Card Blackwood. North has two keycards but he also has a void. The way to show this is to bid 5NT. This is music to South’s ears. In view of North’s splinter he is almost guaranteed to have a Queen in the rounded suits (Clubs or Hearts) and South does not care in which suit the Queen lies so 13 tricks can be underwritten. Accordingly South jumps to the Grand Slam and the play does not present any problems.
Note that for those playing four card majors who choose to open 1 Spade they have a real headache what to bid when North responds 2 Diamonds because to jump to 4 Diamonds would show an unbalanced hand with at least five Spades and to bid 3NT to show the point count might end the auction.
2 When you know that you have an 8 card major suit fit divided 6-2 then you must play in the major not 3NT !
Board 5 Monday 25 May – Vulnerability North South – Dealer North
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109
AJx
J10xx
xxxx
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AKxx
10x
AQ98x
K10
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xxx
Q98xxx
Kx
Ax
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QJxx
Kx
xx
QJ9xx
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North
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East
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South
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West
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Pass
Pass
Pass
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2 Hearts
3 Clubs
Pass
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Pass
Pass
Pass
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2NT
4 Hearts
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The above hand graphically illustrates that when you have an eight card major suit fit divided 6-2 then you must always play in the major and not gamble on 3NT simply because you have honours in the unbid suits. Five of the eight East West pairs in the Monday duplicate played in 3NT and four of them deservedly went down on a Club lead. One North unwisely led a low Diamond which allowed this poor contract to make.
East will open 2 Hearts at the favourable vulnerability. If vulnerable then the suit quality would be somewhat dubious but is fine at Green or White.
West holding a good 16 points is interested in game and bids 2NT enquiry. East is happy to bid 3 Clubs showing a high Club honour and a maximum. Now West should jump to 4 Hearts because there is a much higher likelihood of making ten tricks in Hearts than nine tricks in notrumps.
On the likely Queen of Clubs lead from South to 4 Hearts this contract will make an overtrick due to the favourable location of the Jack of Hearts.
3 Extreme good fortune required
Board 13 Thursday 28 May – Vulnerability Amber – Dealer North
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KQxx
A
QJxx
A107x
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None
Q9xxx
976x
KQJx
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109xx
J10xx
K10
xxx
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AJxxx
Kxx
A8x
98
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North
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East
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South
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West
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1 Club
4 Spades
Pass
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Pass
Pass
Pass
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1 Spade
6 Spades
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Pass
Pass
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I found myself in a very poor 6 Spade contract on the above deal from the Swiss Pairs. Extreme good fortune was required to make the contract.
North raised South’s response of 1 Spade to game since the jury is split on whether it is a good idea to splinter when holding a singleton Ace. I felt that holding a fifth trump and having 5 controls (Ace = 2 controls, King = 1 control) that there was likely to be a good play for slam. I jumped straight to six as there was no need to use Roman Key Card since it was not possible for two keycards to be missing in view of North bidding 4 Spades. While one cannot criticize North’s bid of 4 Spades in the sense that as he has only five losers it is not unreasonable to go to game the hand does illustrate that 4-4-4-1 hands are never as good offensively as you might expect. For instance if North held for example a 4=1=3=5 hand say ♠KQxx♥A♦QJx♣AJ10xx then now slam would be a much better bet as you would have a good chance of establishing the Clubs to deal with any possible Diamond losers.
When the opening lead of the King of Clubs was made and the Dummy went down I realized that I was in a very poor contract. I won the Ace of Clubs and cashed the King of Spades discovering that the trumps were 4-nil. I unblocked the Ace of Hearts at trick three and then conceded my Club loser at trick four. As East had played upwards in Clubs West knew that the Queen of Clubs was not cashing and so had to continue with a red suit. Diamonds is a safer switch than Hearts in case Declarer’s Hearts were KJx(x) and you give Declarer a free finesse. So a Diamond switch (the seven) at trick five goes to the Queen, King and Ace. In order to have a chance of making the contract West will need to have four Diamonds since if the Diamonds are 3-3 there is no chance of a squeeze. At trick six a low Heart is ruffed in the Dummy. The remaining trumps are drawn at tricks seven to nine and at trick ten the King of Hearts is cashed. At trick 11 I was left with the last trump and 8x in Diamonds. West had 96 in Diamonds and the Queen of Clubs while the Dummy held the 10 of Clubs and Jx in Diamonds. When I played the last trump at trick eleven West had to surrender. If the threw the Queen of Clubs then the 10 in Dummy would be boss. So he threw the 6 of Diamonds and now the 10 of Clubs could be thrown from the Dummy. The last two tricks were thus made with the Jack and eight of Diamonds.
The next day when I looked at the hand records I discovered that Deep Finesse stated that while North can always make 6 Spades South on the other hand can be defeated in 6 Spades. It took a couple of minutes for me to understand that the reason for this is that if West had chosen to make his opening lead as the 7 of Diamonds (second highest from a bad suit) and then continued with Diamonds when he won his Club trick that this would destroy the communication in Diamonds necessary for the squeeze at trick 11 described above to operate.
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